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Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Grapefruit and Avocado Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...One of the things for which Helen Corbitt is remembered, is the poppy seed dressing she used to dress the grapefruit and avocado salad served in the Zodiac Room at the Neiman Marcus store in Dallas, Texas. She was an well-educated Irish New Yorker who spent most of her food career in the state of Texas, including 18 years as the majordomo of food services for the Neiman Marcus empire. She was by all accounts a modest, but opinionated woman, who wrote five cookbooks and was the first woman to garner the food service industry's highest accolade, the Golden Plate Award. She fed president's and kings and became a trend setter in the 1950's. While she is credited for many innovations, among them poppy seed dressing and cowboy caviar, she insisted she had not created many of the things attributed to her. She did, however, bring them to everyone's attention and made them popular. You can read more about her here and if you are a collector of cookbooks you can find a collection of her recipes, The Best of Helen Corbitt's Kitchens, here. I am a newcomer to her recipes and I wanted to try the poppy seed dressing she made famous. In order to do that, I had to reconstruct the signature salad that she dressed with it. I wanted to share both with you, as together they make a nice summer salad. The dressing would work well with any citrus salad. Is it as good as they say it is? Probably not, but it's nice to have a dressing for fruit salad handy and this one is easy to make and perfectly serviceable. Here's the recipe.

The salad is refreshingly beautiful. One of my mother's favorite meals to serve her mah jong ladies was chicken divan accompanied by a citrus salad with poppyseed dressing. I wonder if she used Helen's recipe? On a day when I have waxed nostalgic, you've deliciously added to it.

Mary, Thanks for visiting my blog theother day and also for sharing this recipe. One of the reasons I love food is because of the emotions it invokes. This recipe immediately brought me back to my grandmother's table where we would often have this salad. I had forgotten about the allure of this flavor combo, and can't wait to try it again. thanks for the trip down memory lane.

When I saw this post, BEFORE I even read it, the first thing that came to mind was Neiman Marcus. I am so glad you have posted it for I have lost my recipe and have been looking forever. Didn't know HC was behind it, guess I'll just have to get another cookbook!

My mom used to take me to the Little Mermaid Bar at the Highland Park Neiman Marcus. They served a chicken salad sandwich with two slices of bacon on a cheese roll with fresh fruit salad and poppy seed dressing. Heavenly!

This is the prettiest salad I've ever seen, almost too pretty to eat! Oh, the dressing recipe looks so good, and I love to make my own dressings! I'm unable to eat poppy seeds, though. But I will try it without them, I'm thinking it will still taste almost good

As a Texas native, I'm familiar with Ms. Corbitt, and I'm excited to have another recipe inspired by her. I can only imagine how great this combination must be...the creamy avocado paired with the tangy grapefruit. Yum!

I am hopelessly behind in reading food blogger recipes, since my work schedule has drastically changed. I'm finally spending a lazy Sunday afternoon visiting my faves. I read the last ten or so of your recipes and drooled over each one. I stopped here the longest. This salad has all of my favorite components. Sold! You are so talented, Mary.

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